While Donald Trump and his “official opposition” in the Democratic Party never stop boasting before the whole world about the “virtues of American democracy,” it is the real deeds of the capitalist politicians which reveal the typical mode of operation of the U.S. government.

The conditions of arbitrary imprisonment precipitated the deaths of at least 180 people while in immigration detention over the last 15 years. Since 1980 over a dozen people have been shot dead in cold blood by Border Police and thousands have born tragic deaths while in the vicinity of the border. Every day, the police arbitrarily and wantonly inflict beatings and torture on the youth, the working people and the oppressed nationalities. In violation not only of international law but of any civilized standard of conduct, the U.S. army carried out a policy of burying Iraqi soldiers and civilians alive.

These kinds of events are not the result of mere mistakes made by one or a few bad apples, but the typical mode of operation of the U.S. government. Corruption and killing are the way of life of the capitalist class and its state apparatus. The capitalists are committing and will commit any crime in order to rob from and exploit the working people at home and to attack and exploit peoples the world over.

No, the U.S. government is not run according to the will of the people or even according to the rule of law. It is a government of hardened criminals – enemies of humanity – who arbitrarily and with impunity trample on the rights of the people and even their own laws.

What will our future be? Will the capitalist parties lead us into new wars or will the people find the path to peace? Will the capitalists impose more poverty and repression on us or will the people claim their inalienable economic and political rights?

Our country is at a crossroads. The capitalist political parties have repeatedly and openly declared that they are preparing more wars. They are bankrupting the public treasury, destroying our economy and attacking even the most elementary economic rights of the people. The capitalist government keeps increasing its apparatus of repression and attacking the democratic rights of the people.

Anyone who is willing, even for a minute, to acknowledge reality, knows that the current political system and political process is completely monopolized by the rich. The Republicans and Democrats are official government-supported parties, financed by big business and unabashedly devoted to the program of the capitalist class and U.S. imperialism. The big business media monopolizes the political discussion deciding which candidates and which issues get air time. The entire political agenda has been circumscribed by the monopoly capitalist class.

Only the working class and people themselves can lead the way out of the crisis and move our country onto the road of political renewal and the emancipation of the people.

A key factor for advancing such an independent politics is to carry out the broadest possible discussion amongst people about their own independent aims and agenda. Through this discussion, the people will find the ways to bring their agenda to center-stage and to carry out the necessary political changes to insure the implementation of their agenda.

Developing the discussion requires breaking with the way politics is defined by the status quo and creating a new politics which gives content and direction to the aims and agenda of the people themselves. We can envision a new political system and political process which actually empowers the people. We can create new political forms which enable people to politicize themselves by sorting out their own agenda and tactics. We can initiate more independent political actions which bring independent politics to the forefront and openly contend with the capitalists over the present and future of our country.

The ever-growing consciousness and organization of the people is key to victory. As the new social and political movements of the working class emerge, the decisive thing is to build, in the center of the class, the conscious and systematic movement for revolution and socialism.

The National Security State

From the earliest days of the republic, the presidency has commanded enormous powers in the field of foreign relations and as commander in chief of the army. As early as 1799, the Supreme Court, in the words of Chief Justice Marshall, recognized that “the president is the sole organ of the nation in its external relations, and its sole representative with foreign nations.” Even from that early date, it has been standard practice for the executive branch to deploy secret, personal agents on foreign missions, to take over the treatymaking authority of the Senate through use of “executive agreements” with foreign nations, and to deploy troops and wage wars without any declaration from Congress.

In the 20th century and especially during and after World War II, the terms “Imperial Presidency” and “National Security State” have regularly been used to indicate the absolute power of the executive branch in foreign affairs and on the question of war and peace. With the passage of the National Security Act in 1947, which established the CIA, the President’s National Security Council, the Defense Department and the Joint Chiefs of Staff (all under presidential authority), the executive branch has concentrated enormous institutional and war making apparatus to conduct covert operations, gather intelligence and wage war. Just since the end of WW II, the president has committed U.S. troops to combat hundreds of times (in Korea, Lebanon, Cuba, Vietnam, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, Dominican Republic, Libya, Iraq, etc., etc.).

To justify this power and its use, the slogans of “national security” and “national interest” are continually used. In this way, an attempt is made to equate the interests of the whole country with the actions and interests of the Executive branch of government and the class interests upon which it rests. These slogans are also used to justify shrouding U.S. foreign policy in secrecy and carrying it out behind the backs of the American people.

In fact, with the rise of U.S. imperialism, the American presidents consistently claimed the authority to extend the prerogatives of the Executive branch of the U.S. government throughout the world. At the turn of the century, Theodore Roosevelt declared: “Brutal wrongdoing, or an impotence which results in a general loosening of the ties of civilized society, may finally require intervention by some civilized nation... in the Western Hemisphere the U.S. cannot ignore this duty.” Similarly, after WW II Harry Truman asserted: “Almighty God expected us to assume the leadership of the world ...I am trying my best to see that this Nation does assume that leadership.”

From the Anti-Imperialist News Service

U.S. Military Base Construction at Henoko, Japan, Gathers Opposition

June 22, 2018 -- More than 60 years after the Japanese people were shackled with “temporary” Japan-U.S. Security Arrangements permitting U.S. bases to be stationed there, construction of a new U.S. military base at Henoko, Japan, is gathering renewed opposition.

In 1996, after an earlier upsurge in mass opposition to U.S. bases on the island of Okinawa, the Washington government and Japanese Prime Minister concurred about a long-term plan to create a new U.S. base at Henoko instead of giving in to the movement's demand for the total closure of U.S. bases. The plan was revived by President Obama and Prime Minister Abe in 2013, and preliminary work on the construction project began in the fall of 2015. Construction of the new base has been stalled multiple times due to struggles of the Japanese people against U.S. militarization of the region.

Organized actions directed against the new base project took place on May 11 – May 13, when several thousand people participated in rallies linked to the construction project, holding up signs and chanting slogans in defense of the country's constitutional renunciation of war and in opposition to U.S. militarization. A Peace March was also part of the events. Participants adopted a declaration, “We oppose the move being pushed by the Japanese and U.S. governments to reinforce and expand U.S. military bases in Japan.” In reply to the dictatorial power U.S. imperialism still retains over the islands, the actions were organized to coincide with the 46th anniversary commemoration of Okinawa’s return to Japan following its postwar occupation by the U.S. military.

Protests at Henoko, directed against the new base construction, have been ongoing since before the current construction phase began on April 25, 2017.

Postwar treaties requiring Japan to host U.S. military bases inaugurated the strategy of forward deployment of U.S. troops in the Far East which, to this day, serves as the primary bridge for U.S. influence in Asia.

The continuing militarization of Japan by the United States Pacific Command tramples on the sovereign rights of the Japanese people and puts the entire population of the islands at risk. This militarization is part of the aggressive program of U.S. imperialism which extends to every corner of the globe.

U.S. imperialism has grabbed, by force of arms, the territory of other countries and forcibly depopulated whole regions in order to establish a network of military bases – in Puerto Rico, Cuba, Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines, South Korea, etc. The peoples of these countries remain constantly under the gun of the U.S. military which tramples on their sovereignty and national dignity. With this worldwide web of military colonies, U.S. imperialism aims to project its power everywhere and dominate the world.